Justice for All - Report

Two months before the one-year anniversary of September 11, a group of individuals and community-based organizations representing diverse ethnic groups came together to plan an event that would adequately mark for them the tumultuous year since September 11, 2001. So was born the public hearing, Justice for ALL: the Aftermath of September 11. Justice for ALL, conceived and implemented by a coalition of almost one hundred immigrant, peace, civic, and religious community groups, and modeled after the redress hearing held around the Japanese internment in the early 1980s. Men, women and children from the Sikh, Somali, Arab, Latino, and Muslim communities came forward before a panel of high-level elected and appointed officials to tell their stories about the harassment, profiling and discrimination they have faced since September 11. Over 1,000 people attended this landmark hearing, the first such hearing to be held anywhere in the United States.

The following document is the report from that historic event, initiated by Hate Free Zone Campaign (now OneAmerica) of Washington and carried out by a unique coalition of local and national organizations. It holds the stories of all those who spoke and the responses of the Commissioners. Most of all, it holds the possibility of a democracy that truly supports Justice for ALL.